Well, much has kept me from the blog updates since April. To my loyal followers, let me briefly explain the major occurrences.
My wonderful sister Anna died at the end of June after over a decade of winning the daily mental and physical challenges that an aggressive and relentless cancer brings. A force of positive energy to the end, she was my hero.
In April I took on a job as gallery manager for a contemporary art company trading in Harrogate. It was a challenge that took every waking moment of my mind and while I was able to meet the requirements and targets it really was not for me and I left in June having made a couple of very good friends, received lots of praise and learnt heaps about contemporary art, the craft of art and the cruel world of art marketing .
I have since been successfully interviewed for a job with a security firm and a financial house so we will see what will soon see me out and about the North Yorkshire cities and towns.
Gail is committed to spending every spare day in finding the perfect investment house to let south of Leeds, a challenge that continues but this week seems to have settled on a couple of real targets..
But none of that encompasses the things we manage to do while life is distracting us from the fun of living in Wetherby.
One of the endless joys of living in Yorkshire is the ability to drive for a mile or two and discover yet another beautiful riverside walk. This one from Knaresborough we did with Rob and Angela, Lulu and Megs in May. This photo shows all of Angela, my back and a bit of Megs behind the tree. We plan to return this month when all the trees and wildflowers will be in leaf and colour.
Of course no 6+ mile walk is complete without there being a pub at the end. There was no dog friendly pub in Knaresborough :-( . So we took a short drive over to the Ship Inn at Aldborough
http://www.shipinnaldborough.co.uk/ , a place Rob and Ange had been before and whose beef and pud is recommended by Gordon Ramsey if you know who he is. The food was worth the detour and the village stroll we did after the meal, to sober up before the drive home, was a delight. Gail and I found so many homes in the village we wanted to live in, but we always do.
I said at the beginning that I took a job on and this is the method I chose to use to commute the nine miles to and from Harrogate. 2005 Mazda6. It had two main attractions for me. It was cheap and I fit in it. Since buying it it's cost me a couple of tyres, brighter headlight bulbs, an oil change, new sparkplugs, a bit of rust treatment and some fuel induction cleaning all of which I did myself . I do like having a car to play with again.
Gail and I take many strolls around the region but not always with the camera . We did have a rather chilly walk around Yarm at the end of May. Yarm is a little town on the river Tees famous for being a foodies/antiques target. I was less than impressed but perhaps we were there on a down day. It was mid week. The walk though was lovely, I always enjoy walking through banks of wild garlic. It smells so goooood. Gail picked a wodge of it and we used it in a wonderful rice meal that evening.
Very fancy restaurant is this, décor ultra modern and spectacular but service and food were less so.
If ever we are stuck for ideas on a closer place to go for lunch we sometimes drive a short trip to the Travellers Arms near the Rudding estate. Great views, great owners, ex Brisbane residents, good ale and proper pub grub.
A very nice way to lose a few hours over lunch
For a change of pace and closer to home, in the middle of Thorpe Arch Industrial park, a re-purposed WWII ammunition bunker farm, is another restaurant we have visited about four times now, Tom Dick and Harry's. Nothing special, just quirky, close and sometimes interesting meals.
Would you like some burger with your meat? This is the pub burger you get if you can find the hidden gem of a pub in Ledston on the way back from Castleford where Gail is looking for buy-to-let homes. It is a magical little village around a huge castle like Hall/grand home, yet another one. We have just returned for a longer stroll through it's beautiful streets, gardens and gorgeous homes and patted some hilarious cows.
It's been some six years we have lived in Wetherby and only this month that we have discovered we have a train station closer than Harrogate. It is at Cattal and we discovered it because I went for a drive after doing some work on my car. The station has a big black Labrador called Nero which belongs to the stationmaster. He is a friendly dog who recognises all the regular commuters and alerts the Stationmaster if new folk are on the station platform.
But we went back because there is the old railway pub which has been re-vamped into The Victoria restaurant and bar. It's laid out in very traditional décor but it does have a great menu, a solid wine list and a house ale brewed by the publican in a nearby ale house to his recipe. As you can see above, the food is more than acceptable, if perhaps a bit pricey for pub grub.
We are always looking for places by water to have a drink or a meal and we found this one in Allerton By-Water but it is only open on weekends and then only does sandwiches or a Sunday carvery. But , any port on a fine day as they say, and we do love watching boats go by as we sup.
Summer has arrived with a glory we had no idea could happen in England. It is our first real summer here with day after day of sunshine and temps over 24. Beautiful and quite spirit lifting. It would be rude not to take advantage of the Belgian beer specials being offered by our local store. Our back yard is a great place to enjoy a frothy glass or two.
Wakefield also has the Ruddy Duck pub perched on the side of a canal. And while the food is rather chain pub mush, it is beside a body of water with boats.... we like water and boats. Even if it is a rather quiet back canal.
But perhaps our favourite body of water, especially this summer, is our very own river Wharfe which runs by the front of our home. This year has seen us frequently sitting on it's banks in the bright evenings, either sipping wine and nibbling tapas , or drinking beers and sharing cheese and crackers. We are so happy to have a summer to enjoy its flow and to watch the dogs paddle and chase sticks. There are also strange people who have the urge to swim the river's course from weir to bridge, About a mile, against the flow, I mean I understand why salmon do it , but people? Why?
This is more our level of commitment to water sports... Gail demonstrates.
Cooling ones extremities and letting the little fish nibble at our toes.
Finally, for this long delayed blog entry, I will include another few shots of this year's Liquorice festival at Pontefract. If you do a search using the tool at the top of this blog you can see previous year's pics and the story of Liquorice in Yorkshire. This year, Gail just wanted a quick visit, to stock up on all the different types of liquorice, have lunch in the town's oldest tavern and come home. The tavern was shut. We did manage to source soft and hard liquorice, fudge liquorice, salted liquorice and a couple of very welcome liquorice ales. The day was sunny and bright, one may say hot. Such a delight.
I will try to update these pages more regularly now I am not working and worrying about art all the ours on my day, gees, I am glad to be free of that little burden.
Hopefully I will be able to update with good news about my new job in the next post but at the moment, although I have been told they want to hire me, the position is not yet available......
Will see, I am relentlessly applying for other roles I think I'd enjoy. I may have to start looking for ones I don't.
Thankfully Gail is still delighted every day she works and enjoys the new challenges her hospital secondment at North Tees and Hartlepool brings. She is booked into a Forensic Radiography course down south in September so we are planning a trip / holiday to Southampton!
